Tom's Hardware: Topic New mid to high-end build! - REVISED!
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > New System Build > New mid to high-end build! - REVISED!
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OK I've already put a bit of thought into this badboy. To me, this is a great price for a rig of this power, and I thought I would be spending a bit more, so I'm quite happy. I can see all the ATI fanboi's jumping on this rig for the videocard, and for the most part, they are probably right. Except that I can see myself playing AoC and the 4870 donkies in AoC. It seems like the GTX260 provides more consistently good performance across games. I think it was GRID that the 4870 also couldn't handle, and I am interested in playing this game as well.
Pool on that the fact that the 4870 runs very hot and I'm considering dual video cards eventually, and the GTX260 overclocks very well although I think the 4870 will overclock well too, but it's too freaking hot to make it too far. And the fact that I'm a nVidia fanboi and that leaves me at the GTX260.
Anyways, here is the system!
CPU - Intel Core 2 E8400 - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037
GPU - eVGA GTX260 - $400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130370
Motherboard - eVGA 750i SLI FTW - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 750i%2bSLI
Memory - CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Retail - $109 -- ALREADY PURCHASED!
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820145194
PSU - PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply - $120
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =P227-1001
Case - Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ 25CM Fan Retail - $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811133020
Monitor - BenQ FP241W - $554 -- ALREADY PURCHASED!
http://www.ncixus.com/products/19235/FP241W/BENQ/
Total including monitor (not including any HDDs):
$1,763
What do you guys think? I think I can rationalize everything on this list. 
Will most likely buy this weekend.
Are there any glaring problems?
Agreed with akhilles.
If you do want SLI, two problems:
1. You should probably get a 780i motherboard. 750i drops to x8 speed in SLI, which is still fine for 9600GT but it may hurt the GTX 260. I don't have any charts for it, and I may be wrong, but I've seen how two HD 4850 cards are bottlenecked on a P45. That's the same problem, two PCI-E 2.0 slots at x8 each, and video cards powerful enough to care.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/ [...] index.html
2. The PSU is not certified for GTX 260 SLI, and it's not even close to the official approved range. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm actually voting against the Silencer 750W, wow, first time ever
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html
From the certified list for two GTX 260 cards, I'd pick the Silverstone DA1200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] Tpk=DA1200
| aevm wrote : Agreed with akhilles.
|
1. Actually the eVGA 750i FTW does run 2x x16 PCIe slots.
See this post: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp? [...] age=1&key=
It is a known issue in the eVGA 750i FTW manual because this is a point where the FTW diverges from the nVidia reference design.
2. According to [H] a 750W would be fine, and looking at the power draw differences between the GTX280 and GTX260, a GTX260 really shores this up. Check out a post I made on [H] forums about this same thing: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1316796
Also, I did an eXtreme Power Supply Calculator run (http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp) using the 9800GX2s in SLI which draw MORE power than the GTX260s, and really spruced up the numbers on other things, and I ended up with less than 750W...it was right around 600W, which leaves me a very good margin.
Nvidia & Intel are still at odds over sharing tech. Specifically, Intel wants to SLI on their chipsets, but it's the bread & butter for nvidia. I don't think Nehalem boards will have SLI. I think we've seen some pictures of the X58 boards taken at a show. All of them are Crossfire.
Your best bet is 7x0i.
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